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Boy · Latin (possibly Etruscan)
Antonius
Say it: an-TOH-nee-us
Meaning
Roman family name of unknown, possibly Etruscan, origin. The popular link to Greek anthos 'flower', which gave the English spelling with h, is a folk etymology.
Disputedsharp disagreement, or a popular meaning that is not supported.
Spread through Christian Europe by the cults of St. Anthony the Great and St. Anthony of Padua.
Its wave through time
Rare in the records
In the United States
- 591 babies given this name since 1961
- At its height in 1992, about 1 in 99,800 boys
- 12 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- Ancient Rome750 BC to AD 476
- The Early Middle Ages400 to 800
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- The Renaissance1400 to 1600
- The Colonial Americas1500 to 1800
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
LatinEarly ChristianItalianSpanishPortugueseFrenchGermanPolishEnglishAmericanMexican
The family of the name
| English | Anthony |
|---|---|
| Italian | Antonio |
| Spanish | Antonio |
| French | Antoine |
| German | Anton |
| Portuguese | António |
| Polish | Antoni |
| Dutch | Antoon |
Famous bearers
- Marcus Antonius, Mark Antony
- St. Anthony of Egypt
- St. Anthony of Padua
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Roman literature and history (Livy, Cicero, Tacitus and others)
- Lives of the saints and early Christian martyrologies
- Calendars of saints and name days
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.